About

Why Persuasion?

Most changes in society hinge on decisions made by a select group of leaders. Yet most "impact" videos are made for mass audiences where it's nearly impossible to understand the connection between metrics—like views or impressions—and valuable real-world outcomes.

We work with tech companies, foundations, and mission-driven institutions to craft visual narratives that persuade the high-impact decision-makers who alter the economics of businesses, industries, and society. Our focus is videos that lead to clear outcomes—like changing regulations, recruiting top talent, or raising 7-9 figure rounds.

Clarity from Complexity

We are undaunted by the highest orders of subject-matter complexity and relish the challenge of making the exceedingly complicated intelligible and compelling through intuitive storytelling.

Our approach takes inspiration from engineering processes and blends journalistic rigor and cinematic filmmaking with prototyping, testing, and iteration. We use processes and proprietary tools to optimize every story for the qualities that make persuasion possible: clarity, accuracy, defensibility, inspiration and—most importantly—engagement.

Founder Bio

Founder Michael E. Wood is a filmmaker, executive producer, and narrative strategist whose work blends an engineering mindset with cinematic filmmaking. For nearly two decades, Mike has created documentary and branded films for foundations, tech companies, and mission-driven institutions.

He holds a B.S.E. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University, where he won the Enoch J. Durbin prize for engineering innovation, and an M.F.A. in writing, directing, and cinematography from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, where he was a Dean's Scholar. Mike has directed and produced hundreds of documentary shorts and brand films. As the Founding Creative Director of MacKenzie Scott's nonprofit Bystander Revolution, he led the creation of more than 350 videos featuring contributors such as Salma Hayek, Demi Lovato, Michael J. Fox, Jared Leto, Jamie Lee Curtis, Akon, and Elizabeth Banks.

From 2018 to 2026, Mike served as an Executive Producer, Supervising Producer, Director, and on-camera host at Big Think, leading creative and production teams across partnerships with the Abundance Institute, University of Chicago, a16z, Skoll Foundation, Palantir, and Intel. His directing work has been recognized with a Webby Award and seven Telly Awards.

His recent video on reforming the Nuclear Regulatory Commission was shared with and viewed by White House officials as they drafted the executive orders President Trump signed in early 2025. The policy recommendations in the video were reflected directly in the orders.

Earlier in his career, Mike founded and led Gates & Greene, a New York production company with a 12-person creative team producing films for Dom Pérignon, Vodafone, Princeton University, and others. Gates & Greene ran an apprentice program to offer training and job opportunities to young filmmakers with talent but a lack of access and means.

Today, Mike leads Story Engineering, applying engineering-inspired principles to craft narratives that shape consequential decisions.